Video - Bitcoin Boom - Is This the New Safe Haven?

This video explains how the central nervous system of Bitcoin is so secure. Bitcoin resonates the same reason gold resonates because of its impact in the economy and trading. It allows individual to become part of the venture world freely without the intervention of any central authorities.

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEWER: Is this legitimate in your view?

MR. COLAS: It is legitimate and it is a fascinating experiment in what could be a brand-new currency, one that knows no borders, knows no boundaries and in many cases, knows no rules. Something is really fascinating in case, I mean what's happening to our society globally.

INTERVIEWER: Talk about the kind of attention that it's getting right now especially, from your clients.

MR. COLAS: Yeah. It is getting a lot of attention. People are fascinated by anything that makes new highs every day for weeks on end which Bitcoin has done. And so that draws a lot of attention and then people are really --

INTERVIEWER: Hedge funds, individual investors --

MR. COLAS: All the above. Private investors, private capital, venture capital are very interested in this trend. So, you're seeing a lot of interest across the board.

INTERVIEWER: So, what do you tell them? You tell them to buy it?

MR. COLAS: I tell them that it's certainly a valuable part of a diversified portfolio. To me it's seems like gold for nerds. You know, we had gold for many, many thousands of years as a relevant reserve currency. Bitcoin seems like it wants a step into that role for the online world. So, I think it's valuable in that respect. It's also potentially valuable as a method of transaction across borders. It is extremely efficient and that really is the next level of a story for Bitcoin.

INTERVIEWER: But look at what's happened. British in the last 48 hours here are vulnerable to hacking, that crushed the price. Went from 140 to 100.

MR. COLAS: That's right. What's interesting is that the central nervous system of a Bitcoin, the process of creating new Bitcoins and holding transactions is very secure. But the individual while it's exchanges are still very susceptible to the kind of denial-of-service attacks and hack attacks that you talk about.

INTERVIEWER: Well, talk about -- so this is the currency block of lunch money. Why is this a viable alternative to a hard currency that's backed by Central Bank, by governments, regulated and in circulation?

MR. COLAS: Yeah. The bottom line is that Bitcoin resonates the same reason gold resonates. Because nobody controls the supply aside from the algorithm that only issues 25 new Bitcoins every 10 minutes and that will decrease over time. So, it's standardized and it's commoditized to a point where there's very limited supply. Any time you get incremental demands there is a positive story for the currency.

INTERVIEWER: One question that I get a lot on Bitcoin is what's the difference between Bitcoin and PayPal?

MR. COLAS: PayPal is nominated in currency such as dollars.

INTERVIEWER: Yeah.

MR. COLAS: Bitcoin is it owns currency. So, the transfer process looks similar but PayPal is in dollars, Bitcoin is in Bitcoin.

INTERVIEWER: So how do you get it?

MR. COLAS: You get it by going through any one of a number of local providers called wallets. And you can link up your bank account to purchase Bitcoin. Your purchase transaction goes through an exchange and then you receive your Bitcoins in three or four days.

INTERVIEWER: So why are you telling people -- I understand the idea that diversified portfolio but you can diversify with a lot of things that aren't virtual.

MR. COLAS: Yes. You know, as we move into a 21st century world, the technology-based world, that makes sense that something like Bitcoin will eventually be very successful. Is it Bitcoin? No one has any idea, but you certainly pays to be exposed to it early on.

INTERVIEWER: What do you think of the Bitcoin bubble stories cover the Financial Times yesterday?

MR. COLAS: Yeah, you know, bubbles is an easy term to throw around.

INTERVIEWER: Well, if you've seen the price it's a moon shot.

MR. COLAS: It is absolutely a moon shot. The question really have to ask about Bitcoin is, is it going to move beyond just being this kind of freak show reserve currency story of the online world, to being a real viable long-term transactional currency?

INTERVIEWER: And you say yes?

MR. COLAS: I say it's very possible.

INTERVIEWER: But we're still in freak show mode?

MR. COLAS: We're still in freak show mode. (END)